Dime Store perfumes as Christmas gifts

Somebody gave my big sister Max Factor Hypnotique.....

No Impulse? No Night Beat? No comment.

And somebody gave her Avon Topaze...

When I was in fifth or sixth grade, I gave my favorite teachers cheap, nasty Avon perfumes (a friend of my family was an Avon lady).

Sand & Sable for my mom.

It's the "Gay Holiday Box" for the spray cologne and talcum powder set...

Chantilly

White Shoulders

Until the mid- to late '60s, Emeraude and other Coty perfumes were upscale scents sold in department stores. Vintage Emeraude smells almost exactly like Shalimar.

As a working class kid I thought Evening in Paris and Jean Nate were the height of classiness. My mother had them and only used them on very special occasions.

Enjoli

I remember my mom liking Tigress (and me buying it for her) in the late '50s early '60s. It was SO glamorous with the faux tiger fur on the bottle. She also liked Intimate later on in life.

In the last few weeks I found bargains on Lanvin Arpege, Patou 1000, Mitsouko and Jicky, for xmas gifts. None of these are what they once were but they are still quite lovely!

Red Door

R13 I loved Mitsouko perfume, and though never femme, wore it in my teens and early twenties to gay clubs. As a lad, I never did purchase fragrance, cheap or otherwise for ladies. I do remember buying Ysatis and Bel Ami for my mum when I couldn't afford them. I knew well enough that she only liked the good stuff.

R7 Another vote for Chantilly.

I used to give my mother White Shoulders, as well.

A lot of those dime store perfumes will stop you on a dime.

My mother loved White Shoulders. It was the first perfume she was allowed to wear as a teenager. Imagine that,a time where teen girls werent allowed to look and dress like prostitutes at 13. I also used to buy her Babe,then steal it and wear it. I LOVED the smell of Babe !

White Diamonds is a pretty perfume but really out of place in today's world.

My mother's "scent" was Coty's L'Origan--she hated the smell of Emeraude. One year I bought her a variety box of scented bath soap bars--the name of the brand is escaping me, but it was faux-British, back when all things Londonesque were in the vanguard of middle-brow women's culture. She did a good job of pretending she liked them, bless her heart!

Yardley's was the soap brand.

R22 have you tried yardleys charcoal soap ? its fab !

My Sin.

Perfect gift for a young gay boy to give to the grownup ladies in his life.

Was White Shoulders always a drugstore perfume? My grandma wore it from the 50s onward, and my grandparents were very wealthy.

I gave my Aunt Cheryl Summer's Eve every Christmas, but she never used it.

My grand mum's favorite. Bought it for her ever Christmas. Everytime I smell a gardenia I think of her. Miss ya Daphne.

[quote] White Diamonds is a pretty perfume but really out of place in today's world.

That's because Liz is dead... as is Von Ryan...

I gave my high school drivers ed coach a gift one year. It was painfully awkward for the rest of the term.

There are no dime stores anymore unfortunately.

Electric Youth complete with glitter from Debbie Gibson was my go-to gift. She even had a rollerball applicator.

I bought Emeraude and Jean Nate for my mom

Nice of you to attack 13-year-old girls, r19!

Are you Trump?

R25 I believe it was originally a luxury scent.

White Shoulders was upscale for a long time (Elizabeth Arden bought the rights in the '80s or '90s). It is (or at least used to be) a REALLY strong, heavy white floral.

Its creator was an Austrian-born chemist named Walter von Langendorff who styled himself as a baron. His second wife was Gabriele Lagerwall, the ridiculous-looking "Baroness von Langendorff" of New York Social Diary fame.

But the Baroness doesn't look like she wears White Shoulders. I'm guessing she smells of Monkey 47 and schnitzel.

Thank you for the history lesson. I like leaving here with a new tidbit of trivia.

[quote] I'm guessing she smells of Monkey 47 and schnitzel.

Yeah, I can see that! LOL

Oooo R29 ! That is my very favorite smell on a man ! Instant hard on ! My 1st husband hated to wear cologne but on occasion would wear that for me. he always used to joke he knew he was good for some ferocious sex that night !

[quote] Dime Store perfumes

Otherwise known as STANK.

Some folks really need this in their stockings.....

My first perfume was Love’s Baby Soft (woman here). I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Charlie. My dad and I bought a set for my mother in the 70’s.

Charlie ad with Shelley Hack

I must be terribly exhausted because I first read the thread header as "Dinah Shore perfumes...."

It stays on your mind...

^^By Prince Matchabelli^^. So exotic.

I thought I was rather grown up giving my mother Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers as a teenager in the 1990s.

I actually don't mind the scent know, but mother later told me it wasn't the greatest.

God, yes Prince Matchabelli and Wind Song. I don't think I ever got them as a gift, but they would have been my first choice as a gift giver if someone like perfume. The bottles were so nice. They look Victorian now.

I remember getting my mom some "Charlie" as a kid. She had a lot of allergies to perfume and that was the only one she'd found that she could wear.

[quote] Nice of you to attack 13-year-old girls, [R19]! Are you Trump?

Nah, he just want's to be like Ivanka who got pawed and sexualized long before 13. Despite all of the sexual fantasies depicted here in various states of romantic or erotic manner even despite possibly familial relationships (nephews, twins, etc) there is that one forbidden love: the want/need to be groped by Trump.

It's a horrific thing to even contemplate, but if a frau wears this in public, you know there's more than one gay man who envies those groped by Trump. Just sayin'. As grotesque and incomprehensible it is, it's one of those aberrations that just happens, like serial killers.

I kid you not, one time at Dollar General many years ago, they were selling a knock off of Brut. Brut, which is like 99 cents to begin with.

My late mother wore Emeraude on dressy occasions. It wasn’t always a cheap perfume, in her childhood Coty perfumes were fancy.

[QUOTE] Red Door

I’m from Long Island, it’s “Red Daw”

I bought a three pack of a perfume called Verve for my sister. She yelled at me to shove it up my ass because it wasn't the Liz Claiborne perfume she had asked for.

We have hated each other since.

Curve Crush smells simply divoon!

Why are some people snobs about buying cosmetics, toiletries, perfumes, etc from drug stores? What is so wrong with that? The moderately priced stuff works just as well.

I just gave you a W/W, r40. Simply because nobody has mentioned Tussy in such a long time!

Is it Tussy or Pussy? Because I can only get behind one.

Better yet R57, there's a fragrance by Merle Norman called "Hussy". No joke.

Cheers R59. I was out to the shops one day with an older lady friend who had to pick up an olive green eyeliner pencil from MN, and there were banners and placards all over promoting this... We just about died laughing. The lady behind the counter was not amused.

I took piano lessons as a child. My piano teacher’s name was...

HARRIET HUSSY.

I bough Arpège because of one word:

R61 🤣🤣🤣that’s just begging to be a provincial black comedy or a musical

Arpège is by Lanvin. Is Cartier the blooper? What an arriviste! She would enjoy Ver-sayse aujourd'hui?

I wish I could say I, too, bought drugstore perfumes, some were marvelous. But...NO! We were scents snobs at our house. My mother had all the old classics - Shalimar, Nuit de Noël, Femme, Arpege. Once I turned 15, she insisted I wear Diorissimo.

Okay...I didn't smell like any of my contemporaries, so bought myself Muguet by Yardley and switched it out. Later I moved on to the fashionable scents of the moment. Although, perfumes went out of style for the young back then. In the 90s, with Fresh and CKOne, they came back.

(TBH, Mother had an incredible nose. If you opened a bottle of Coca-Cola in the kitchen, she could smell it all the way in her room.)

R60:

An olive-green eyeliner pencil??

Elizabeth Taylor wore olive green eyeliner.

R66 Apparently that was the only place she could get the right colour. She's a fair freckled redhead with green eyes, and eschews dark pencil and mascara. I don't usually ask too many questions, but it seemed to be a big deal for her. She claims too many women, especially older ones wear too much dark eye make-up.

OH, my mistake. I thought you meant an eyebrow pencil! Sorry!

No worries R69... I hadn't a clue it even existed at the time! R67 Thanks for that tidbit too, I shall tell my friend.

Chantilly for mom, and Brut for dad. Muguet des Bois by Coty was popular with young teens.

You can buy pussy scented incense. Why don't they make a dick scent?

R65, after fragrance shopping did you escort Mother to the tearoom of the store for some finger sandwiches?

I'm another one who bought White Shoulders for my Mom. She never wore it, though. I was just a little boy, and I bought at the drugstore around the corner from here.

R70, you might mention to your friend that Sephora (house brand) also makes a nice olive-green eyeliner. They call the shade Khaki.

I also used to think that Jean Naté was the ultimate in European elegance.

Between Jean Nate and you there's nothing you can't do!

Well, my Christmas has been destroyed since they stopped airing those gauzy Elizabeth Taylor ads for White Diamonds.

That wasn't gauze, r78, that was linoleum.

Here's my earring to make you fell better r78 "these have always brought me luck"

that's *feel*

Windsong bottles look like a whore's tits.

I was thinking more like a Kartrashian ass in a thong, r82.

But it stays on your mind.

I would love to have these type of commercials again, instead of the all the medicines with their side effects or car ads.

My brother was so proud of his Brut soap on a rope that he got one year for Christmas.

I used to love the perfume print ads back in the day. I remember an ad in teen mags for Love's Baby Soft. It was a cute guy telling a story about how he loves lending his jacket to his gf because it always smells good when she returns it.

Enjoli

Oh yeah! We're gonna have an Aviance night!

OMG I bought my mom a tiny bottle of Tabu for Christmas at the drug store in the mall. After I was a few years older, I bought her Rive Gauche and she really liked that one.

My mother did "Evening in Paris", but "Wind Song" was more special occasion.

Muguet des Bois by Coty. Smelled like lily of the valley.

R91 Muguet is the French word for that flower.

Tabu smells like a drag queen in a bottle.

R85 All the commercials were better. I've been watching old commercials on youtube, and they were entertaining unlike the ones now, even the ones for OTC medication and cars, but thankfully they didn't have prescription drug commercials then.

Arthur Spooner wears Canoe.

Doug Heffernan wears Midnight Steel.

Marie Barone wears Jean Nate.

Curve Chill

My mother received Xia-Xiang (sp?) as Christmas gift many years ago. One of her office co-workers gave it to her in a gift exchange. When she saw it being sold a CVS/Walgreens, she stopped wearing it. Mom didn't wear "cheap" perfume. Mom loved Norell and Chanel No. 5.

Mother said she wanted a new scent.

I wish Fabergé would bring back Straw Hat. People on eBay make money off old bottles and decants. It was a lovely summer scent: rose, violet, geranium leaf, etc.

Some scents mentioned here are being auctioned off. I have no idea how authentic the vintage is.

When I was 7 or 8, I saved up and bought my grandma some FOREVER KRYSTLE perfume.

We would always watch Dynasty together.

No love for Woodhue?

Interesting about our perfume memories. My favorites have been White Shoulders and Avon's Timeless. Most women love the floral scent of WS. Men like it to. I first heard about WS on the TV show "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"in the late 1970's. Wanda Jeeter, played by the great Marion Mercer, was the wife of Merle Jeeter, Mayor of Fernwood, played by Dabney Coleman. Wanda had a lesbian fling with Lila the Maid, played by Marjorie Battles, who had a truckload of tits. Wanda commented how much she loved Lila's WS perfume. That intrigued me so I went out and bought a small bottle of the perfume for my sister. I loved the smell and have been buying it for relatives and friends ever since. I buy the cologne because it smells just as good and you get a larger bottle for less money. I love Avon's Timeless cologne. It has a spicy and floral fragrance. A waitress friend named Helen used to wear it . I always think of her when I smell it. I like to buy the little round plastic tubs with metal lids of the body cream for myself. It works great on my stinky feet.

Remember girls, just a little dab behind the ears. No head-to-toe self-fogging

I bought L’Air du Temps for my mom. Late 70s or early 80s.

I bought my mother a bottle of Exclamation for her birthday. She never wore it but left it on her bathroom vanity, as a sign of her appreciation of my giving it to her.

White Shoulders?

My Mom had a whole Evening in Paris gift set that my Dad bought her when they were first dating. She never wore it, since she always claimed that perfume gave her migraines. I didn't start wearing cologne until I moved out.

I remember Exclamation. Do they still make that shit?

"Scoundrel" by Joan Collins.

Smells like roses crushed and swished around in gasoline.

Does anyone remember navy from Cover Girl?

"Skinny Dip" ad with Sandy Duncan.

So cheesy.

OMG, I did! I bought my mother Prince Matchabelli (have no memory why I picked that brand). I think the packaging looked classy to me.

I told my mother that I was thinking of buying her "Georgio of Beverly Hills" for her birthday.

She responded by saying, "Presbyterians don't wear that, dear."

I totally had no idea what she was talking about.

I had no idea there were that many MARYs on datalounge?

R115: New here? Welcome!

R111, Yes, I remember Navy. I was working for Procter and Gamble at the time, and it was their first entree into the perfume business. In the meantime, though, they had bought up a number of classic perfume companies, like Jean Patou, and bastardized their products.